Weekly Newspaper and Tourism Guide for Ward County Trans Pecos, Big Bend of West Texas

Sports

February 19, 1998

Green Wave sophomore leads sub-5A

By a sports correspondent of the News
LUBBOCK - Green Wave sophomore Candice Teague finished
fourth to lead all sub-5A backstrokers in the regional
competition at Lubbock on St. Valentine's Day, Saturday,
Feb. 14.

Teague competes for 3A Monahans High School and already
holds the school record for the 100 back. She was
competitive in a meet where swimmers from 3A and 4A schools
were shredded by a 5A buzz-saw.

Her time in the 100 back was 1:04.85 which, says Green Wave
Coach Doug Ward 'was the highest finish of any of the teams
in our district."

The 5A domination shouldn't have been a surprise. At the top
of the results sheet for the regional competition, it is
written: "1-5A Regional Swimming & Diving Championships."

Swimming is the only prep school sport in Texas where teams
do not compete for championships according to the size of
their student bodies.Twenty-one of the schools competing in
the regional competition were 5A according to their
classification by the University Interscholastic League; 10
were 4A. Three - Monahans, Seminole and Abilene Wylie - are
3A.

In the team competition for men, El Paso Eastwood walked
through the 622 swimmer, 34 school, 24 event competition.
Eastwood literally blew the rest of the competitors out of
the water, scoring 81.5 points to second place San Angelo
Central's 55. The only sub-5A schools to finish in the top
15 men were those from Pecos and Big Spring, both 4A teams
from District IV. Big Spring was tenth in the team tallies
with eight points; Pecos was just behind at eleventh with
seven.

In the women's competition, El Paso Franklin was the team
winner with 81 points. Lubbock High was second at 51 points.
Here Monahans did make the Top 15. Green Wave women were
fifteenth with Teague's three points. Big Spring, six
points, was thirteenth.

Monahans swims in the same district as Big Spring and Pecos,
who won the district swimming competition. Big Spring was
the women's division winner; Pecos, the men's.

In the 200 women's back where Teague finished fourth, the
winner was Amber Goodwin, a senior at Midland Lee. She won
in 57.5 easily. Second was Danielle Bradley, an El Paso
Franklin sophomore, in 1:02.10. Teague and Courtney
Sternard, a San Angelo Central senior, dueled for third but
Teague was edged by five-hundredths of a second. Says Green
Wave Coach Ward: "I felt the entire Monahans squad, both
the boys and the girls, did a great job of representing the
school. Candice had a great day for a sophomore and did
something no one else in our district was able to do. The
competition was fierce. But the Loboes didn't wither."

Parents want UIL to consider fair play

Parents of Green Wave swimmers want a University
Interscholastic League agency to reconsider its rejection
of a plan that would have allowed Texas high school swim
teams to compete with schools of their own size.

Swimming is the only UIL sport in which teams from all
levels, 1A through 5A, compete directly with each other.
Football, basketball, baseball, softball, track, volleyball
and other prep sports compete in classifications based on
the number of students enrolled in the school. The UIL does
this, according to UIL policy statements, to ensure a level
and fair playing field for all public school athletes.

"That's true except in swimming," says Monahans High School
Coach Doug Ward. "In swimming, the kids from small schools
and small programs must compete directly with kids from
large schools and large programs."

Ward says the parents of his swimmers want the UIL to bring
back to the table a proposal that would provide at least two
competitive levels for the state's high school swimmers -
essentially big schools and small schools.

Schools currently ranked as 5A in other sports would comprise one section under this proposal. All other schools would comprise the second section. The plan was suggested by the Small School Swimming Proposal Committee of the Texas Interscholastic Swimming Coaches Association.

The coaches suggested that the fair play plan start in the 1998-99 school year. At least five of the coaches who signed the plan are from 5A programs in San Antonio, Temple and Corpus Christi.

"The parents of my swimmers want reclassification," says Ward. "I want this. Coaches of all the high schools, big and small, want it.

Five-A schools draw from a swimmers pool in which nearly all compete in year-round U.S. Swimming (an Olympic Games
preparation program). In the smaller communities, we do not
have that option."

Lobo softballers win

Okay, it was a junior varsity squad. But it was a 5A Odessa
High Broncho junior varsity squad that gives the varsity
fits every day.

So this was a good opener and the Monahans High School
softball Loboes slapped them - 8-zip - in the opening game
of the season on the Green's home diamond.

Next stop is Saturday, Feb. 21, at Fabens near El Paso where
the time is Mountain Standard. Its the first District 3-3A
game of the last season in the league. Next year realignment
puts the Green into 4-4A and district games that are closer
to home.

Here's how Coach Becky Melius assessed the 8-0 victory over
the Odessa High JV on Tuesday, Feb. 17.

"We felt confident for this game due to this past weekend.
We scrimmaged (Midland) Greenwood, Pecos, Odessa Permian and
Fort Stockton," says Melius. "Against the Bronchos,
defensively we played fine for this early in the season.
Offensively, well, it takes time. We are remembering how we
played last Spring and not what it took to get there. Our
pitching staff is primed and ready to go."

Kacy Huckabee started Tuesday, going five innings. She threw
69 pitches, faced 18 and allowed two hits. Huckabee struck
out six and walked two.

Says the coach: "This was an excellent performance. Kacy
recently has joined the softball team, coming from
basketball."

Vicki Lopez completed the shut out, pitching the final two
innings. Lopez threw 11 pitches and faced only six batters.
Shayla Terry was two for three, scored two runs and drove in
five to lead the Lobo offense. Pitching and defense combined
to strand four Broncho runners. Lobo fielders made three
errors. On Saturday for the district opener in Fabens,
Melius says Tabetha Chaney will be the starter.

Of Chaney, the coach says: "She really turned some heads
this past weekend at the Permian scrimmage. A sore hip
sidelined her Tuesday but she will be ready Saturday. Lobo
softball JV meets Greenwood in Monahans on Friday at 5 p.m.

Coach Hix wants some consistency

By a sports correspondent of the News
BIG SPRING - After two days of frustration, the women
golfers from Monahans High School finished 13 in a field of
23.

The two day outing on Friday the 13th and St. Valentine's
Day, Feb. 14, wasn't all that bad.

Kandace Burnett led the Lobo golfers with with a 179 (90 on
the Big Spring Country Club course on Friday and 89 when the
women moved to the Comanche Trails Course on Saturday).

They finished ahead of teams from some 5A level schools that
included Midland High, Lubbock Coronado, Lubbock Monterrey,
Amarillo Caprock, Amarillo High and Odessa Permian, .Big
Spring, the host for the invitational finished first, which
was expected. The Big Spring women tallied 336 and 338 for a
674, 15 strokes ahead of runner-up Midland Lee's 350-339 -
689.

Says Hix: "The team is still working hard and still needs to
develop some consistency within a round." Next Lobo match:
Fort Stockton, Feb. 27 and Feb. 28.

Lobo tennis strong as rain dampens courts

By a sports correspondent of the News
SAN ANGELO - Monahans traveled to the West Texas
Championship tennis tournament in San Angelo, Friday and
Saturday, Feb. 13 and 14, for competition and a little rain.

Rain stopped the tournament, but before the rain the women's
doubles made an impressive showing. Lecia Baker and Erin
Armstrong won the consolation finals as the rain started.
Christina Wilbur and Sandra Molinar ran into strong
competition and came up short after a hard match, first
against Abilene Wylie and then El Dorado.

Green Tennis Coach Justin Quest was happy with Kyle Clemmer
and Drew Skinner with their victory over a strong Fort
Stockton team (6-3, 7-5)
Quest says: "We had a strong showing from the whole team. It
was a tough tournament with 12 teams present."

The coach says he is proud of the Loboes in their first
tournament of the Spring season.

Quest says he is sure Joanna Cupp and Megan Shawn would
have taken first and second out of 58 girls in the girls
singles if, says the Lobo tennis coach, the rains had not
started falling and shortened the last game.

The coach notes he looks forward to keeping his unbeatable
streak in dual matches against Odessa Permain in Monahans
Saturday, Feb. 21, at 10 am.